- Author
- Cuzzillo, B. R. | Pagni, P. J.
- Title
- Thermal Breakage of Double-Pane Glazing by Fire.
- Coporate
- Berkeley Engineering and Research, Inc., Berkeley, CA California Univ., Berkeley
- Journal
- Journal of Fire Protection Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1-11, 1998
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Contract
- NIST-GRANT-60NANB80848
- Keywords
- glazing materials | cracking (fracturing) | windows | heat transfer | equations | convective heat transfer
- Identifiers
- heat transfer analyses for a single pane; extension to double-pane windows; convective heat transfer coefficients
- Abstract
- A model for double-pane window breakage due to heating by fire is developed that applied to both compartment fires and to urban/wildland intermix fires. This work builds on the model and computer code, BREAK1, for single-pane window breaking by fires, as described in previous publications, with additional features including the inter-pane gap heat transfer and sequential pane-breaking. A Mathcad-based computer code, McBreak, is developed that implements the double-pane model. Radiation is shown to dominate the inter-pane gap transport unless low-emissivity interior glass surfaces are used. Fires on the outdoor side of double-paned windows are included, since windows represent one of the most vulnerable features of dwellings in the urban/wildland intermix and double-paned windows help fire-harden a structure. Examples are presented for double-pane window breakage in compartment fires and wildland fires. Confirmed is the empirical observation that double-pane equipped structures might survive urban/wildland intermix fires better than their single-pane equipped neighbors.